Time gas-lighting apparatus.



No. 743,565. I PATENT-ED NOV. 10, 1903- P. ROUG-BT.

TIME GAS LIGHTING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 24, 1903. no MODEL. 2 sums-SHEET 1 c: I 1 u..uuunnu1mm wmvgssgs: y //vx//'vr0/ n4: man's PETERS w. FHOYO-LITHO. WASHINGTON n PATENT-ED NOV. 10, 1903.

I ROUGET; TIME GAS LIGHTING APPARATUS.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 24, 1903.

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NlTED Patented November 10, 1903*.

STATES PATENT Prion,

PAUL ROUGET, OF PARIS, FRANCE, ASSIGNOR TO CIE AME GONTINENTALE POUR LA FABRICATION DES (JOMPTEURS A GAZ E'I AUTRES APPAREILS,

OF PARIS, FRANCE.

TIME GAS-LIGHTING APPARATUS.-

SPEGIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 743,565, dated November 10, 1903.

Application filed April 24, 1903. Serial No. 154,118; (No modeLl To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, PAUL ROUGET, a citi' zen of the Republic of France, residing at Paris, France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for AutomaticallyExtinguishingLights,Whether Gas- Burners, Electric Lamps, or the Like, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights after these ed on an axissc a quadrant-lever S, having in 60 ternal teeth gearing with a pinion P, fixed on have been burning a prescribed time. I will describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings, which show, by way of example, its application to the extinguish- !5 ing of gas-burners.

Figure 1 is an elevation, and Fig. 2 a plan. Fig. 3 is an inside view of the casing, the front plate being removed to show the ratchetwhcel and double pawl, and the mainspring being shown in dotted lines. Fig. 4 is a horizontal section of the casing, showing the principal interior parts in elevation. Ii

By means of this apparatus when a gas-jet has been ignited it can be extinguished au- 5 tent to which S is turned. A retaining-pawl tomatically after it has been burning for a certain number of hours without any personal attention being required for the purpose. The apparatus is capable of numerous applications, of which the most important is the 0 application to street-lamps.

- As is known, the municipal authorities establish for the regulation of street-lighting a table of the hours when the lamps are to be lighted and the time for their extinction. The

5 lighting of the lamps presents no difliculties,

as the operatives can easily be obtained and supervised to insure that this is correctly done toward nightfall whether they they be the regular servants of the municipality or 0 of the gas-works or persons temporarily appointed for this short service, the lighting of the whole of the lamps having tobe effected by a definite time. It is, however, not the same in the case of extinguishing the lamps,

which is effected at difierent times in many towns. The operatives have to keep awake for this purpose, and they require high wages for this night service. On the other hand, the control of this service of extinction is difiicult, and the authorities have no guarantee 5o 1 that the extinction is not delayed one or more hours beyond the tabular time, causing a loss to the gas company in the cases where these 1 are only paid for the particular duration of burning set down on the tables. From these I circumstances it will be seen that the automatic light-extinguishing apparatus supplies a real want.

Referring to the drawings, there is mountthe axis of the spring-barrel of a clockwork, regulated so that the pinion is made to perform, for example, one complete revolution Z during the maximumlength of time for which the lights are to be kept burning. quadrant S has the same number of teeth as the pinion, it will be seen that if the quad- ;rant be turned by hand in the direction of j the arrow by pulling at the hook O the gas- 7c supply cock R will be opened and'the pinion If the P in being made to revolve will wind up the spring of the barrel corresponding to the exwithin the casing B, which contains the clockwork, retains the spring-barrel in the position into which it has been brought, and the spring in unwinding will move backward by means of the pinion P the quadrant S, which is made to complete such motion at the expiration of the predetermined time, as will be presently explained. In turning the quadrant S by the hookO, as described, an arm or thereof lifts a stud c on a lever fixed to the plug of the cock R, thereby turning the latter into the open position until the stud c engages with a pivoted spring-catch n, and the lever and cook are thereby held in the open position until the catchn is disengaged from the stud c. When this takes place, the cock is rapidly closed by a go spring Z, connected to an arm on the cockplug and tending to turn it in the contrary direction to the lever. The quadrant S has an arm (1, which when it is turned in the direction of the arrow f allows the catch it to engage with thestud c of the cock-lever, as described, while when lever S has turned a certain distance in the contrary direction the arm d presses the catchdt out of engagement capement. The shaft 0 carries likewise a with the stud c, and the cock R is then rapidly closed by spring Z, as described. The durationot the burning of the lamps supplied by the cock R will therefore depend upon the time occupied by the quadrant S and its arm min turning back from the position into which it was raised into that in which the arm d effects the release of the stud c by the catch n.

It will be seen that the clockwork that controls the pinion P can be so regulated as, for example, to cause the pinion having fourteen teeth to revolve twice in sixteen hours and to bring the quadrant having twentyeight teeth back from the point to which it had been turned in the opening movement into its starting position during the same' time of sixteen hours. The quadrant has on its outer periphery a series of stepped teeth or notches which are at a gradually-increasing distance from the axis 00, as shown. It will be understood that if a stop were provided in such a position that one of the teeth would come in contact with it during the upward motion of S such motion would be arrested at that point, and by rendering the stop adjustable the opening motion of S could be limited to a fraction n of its total motion, so that the length of time between the lighting and extinguishing of the lights would then be hours. In the arrangement shown the stop It for this purpose is mounted on a slide that can be moved up or down in a groove on the clockworkcasing, being socured in position by a clamping-screw Q), so that according to the position into which the stopis moved it will arrest the opening motion of S sooner or later, as above described. At the side of the stop is provided a graduated scale the divisions of which are marked with ditferent hours of duration of the burning, so that the apparatus can readily be set to extinguish the light at any given time by setting the stop at the corresponding division of the scale. Thus it will be seen that having opened the gas-supply cock for the ignition of the lights one can rely upon these being extinguished at the exact time required by means of this apparatus, while this requires no personal attention at all after having once turned the quadrant S for lighting, the clockwork being rewound every time the quadrant is so turned by the action of pinion P, as described.

The details of the interior mechanism may be considerably varied. A suitable arrangement is shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The casing B incloses a spiral spring Y, of which the outer end is fixed to the casing 00, while the central end is fixed at y to the shaft 0, which carries at its outer end the pinion P. This shaft 0 carries within the casing a toothed wheel Q, which transmits the movement of the spring by any suitable clockwork (which it is thought needless to illustrate) to an esdouble arm T, at the ends of which are pivoted the spring-pawls g, which engage a ratchet-wheel h, fixed on the shaft 0.

Although I have described the action of the apparatus in connection with gas or acetylene lights, it willbe evident that it is equally applicable to electric lights, as it is only necessary to substitute for the gas-cock suitable contacts on the supply-circuit and a switch in connection with the quadrant S, so arranged as to close the circuit when the quadrant is turned upward and to break the circuit when the quadrant arrives at its original position again.

Having thus described the nature of my said invention and the best means I know of carrying the same into practical effect, I claim 1. Apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights, comprising in combination a toothed segment-lever, a pinion gearing therewith, a barrel-spring on the axis of which said pinion is fixed so that on turning the segment-lever in one direction it effects the winding up of the barrel-spring which in unwinding turns the segment-lever in the contrary direction, a light-controlling lever actuated to permit the making of the light by the segment-iever when the latter is moved in one direction, a catch device for retaining the light-controlling lever in the lighting position, a device on the segment-lever for releasing the light-controlling lever, and a spring arranged to move the light-controlling lever to extinguish the light when the segment-lever is moved back to its original position by the pinion and barrel-spring.

2. Apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights, comprising in combination a toothed segment-lever, a pinion gearing therewith, a barrel-spring on the axis of which said pinion is fixed so that on turning the segment-lever in one direction it effects the winding-up of the barrel-spring which in unwinding turns the segment-lever in the contrary direction, a light-controlling lever, a stud on said lever engaging with the segmentlever so as to be turned thereby when the latter is moved in the direction for making the light, a spring-catch for holding said light-controlling lever when brought into the light-making position, an arm on the segment-lever that disengages the catch from the light-controlling lever when the segmentlever is turned back into its original position by the pinion and barrel-spring, and a'spring acting on the light-controlling lever so as to move it in the direction to extinguish the light when it is released from the catch.

3. Apparatus for automatically extinguishing lights, comprising in combination a toothed segment-lever,a pinion gearing therewith, a barrel-spring on the axis of which said pinion is fixed so that on turning the segmentlever in one direction it efiects the winding-up of the barrel-spring which in unwinding turns the segment-lever in the contrary direction, a light-controlling. lever, a stud on said lever engaging with the segmentlever so as to be turned thereby when the latter is moved in the direction for making the light, a spring-catch for holding said light-controlling lever when brought into the light-making positioman arm on the segmentlever that disengages the catch from the light-controlling lever when the segment-1ever is turned back into its original position by the pinion and barrel-spring, ands, spring acting on the light-controlling lever so as to move it in the direction to extinguish the light when it is released from the catch, said I 5 witnesses.

PAUL ROUGET.

' Witnesses:

J ULEs ARMENGAUD, Jeune, MARGEL ARMENGAUD, Jenne. 

